New treatments for malaria offer hope

For the past quarter-century, the gold standard malaria treatment has been artemisinin combination therapies (ACTs). Yet there are issues of treatment nonadherence and malaria parasite drug resistance. At the annual meeting of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (ASTMH), promising results from two trials suggest new treatments may address these problems. Researchers presented the results of a Phase 3 study conducted in Gabon that tested a single-dose treatment made by combining four existing antimalarials: sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine (SP), and artesunate-pyronaridine (AP) , or SPAP. Blood tests showed that the single-dose was just as effective as taking a six-dose treatment over three days. The SPAP drugs are affordable and readily available in sub-Saharan Africa, which bears the biggest malaria morbidity burden in the world. World Health Organization statistics suggest that the region accounts for around 95% of the world’s malaria infections and deaths.At the same meeting, researchers also presented the results of a Phase 3 trial of KLU156, or GanLum, made by combining a new drug candidate, ganaplacide, and lumefantrine,, an existing antimalarial. Ganaplacide has a new mechanism of action for antimalarials; the imidazolopiperazine-based molecule was discovered and developed by Novartis with support from the nonprofit Medicines for Malaria Venture. In the trial, GanLum, given as a sachet of granules once a day for 3 days, cured 97.2% of participants compared with 94% of those who were given an existing treatment, artemether-lumefantrine.“Beyond treating malaria, GanLum also has the potential to fight drug-resistant parasites and block transmission, rapidly killing the form of